Pastor Paul Burke - Break the Grip of Addiction

Well, praise the Lord, it is good to be here tonight. Times Square Church, it is good to be here tonight. So thankful for the worship team, ushering us into the presence of the Lord. Wasn't it a wonderful time? Wonderful time. What a great testimony from Evan. Tremendous, tremendous deliverance. The deliverance power of Jesus Christ, amen. Doesn't that just give you faith? Doesn't that give you hope that no matter what you go through, that God can see you through? I wanna thank Pastor Tim and Cindy. They're just amazing, amazing people. Amazing leaders to an amazing church, but just amazing people. So, so thankful. Pastor Tim really, really helped, not just guide us through some turbulence times in the ministry, but just personally, always brought strength and encouragement to me. So thankful for you, Pastor Tim. You have no idea how much our relationship has meant to me. It's deeply, deeply grateful. So thankful for this church, all of the pastors and the elders that have held the line for decades. This pulpit right here has been preaching the gospel, uncompromised gospel since this church was born in 1987.

So thankful for this church. I'm grateful for, of course, that Brooklyn Adult and Teen Challenge is able to be here today, for my students and staff. So thankful that the Lord has entrusted me and given me the opportunity. And of course, I'm really thankful that my wife is here with us tonight. I think she's taking care of the baby, but that's what she does nowadays. She takes care of our babies. And if she did not do that, I could not do this. So I'm thankful for my wife. I am going to be brief today, tonight. I will make sure that I get you home before midnight. It is Friday night, though. We're gonna party, right? Amen? Tonight, I've been given the task of speaking under the topic of breaking the grip of addiction and I feel really comfortable talking about that tonight. Because 18 years ago, I crawled into the doors of Teen Challenge, broken, lost, suicidal, no self-esteem or self-worth. And Jesus Christ did something in my life that not only radically changed my life, but it changed the trajectory of my life. It changed, which would be now the legacy that I get to leave behind children

that don't have a dad as a drug addict or a father as a criminal, but as a man of God. And so I'm thankful for what the Lord did through the ministry of Teen Challenge. And for me, standing behind this pulpit is surreal. Because coming in the doors, the first thing you do is read the cross and the switchblade. Any Teen Challenge you go around the world, that's the first thing they do. They hand you the cross and the switchblade. They say, read about how we started. And to think that walking in the doors of Long Island Teen Challenge in 2008, that the Lord would lead me to the doors of Brooklyn Teen Challenge in 2017 to be the director blows my mind. It's unbelievable and hard to fathom. But I struggled with drugs for 18 and a half years before the Lord rescued me. Had some clean time and grew up around the things of the Lord. So it wasn't that I didn't hear the gospel. You may be seated, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You guys need to see. I'm ready to run, but you guys need to sit. And so I'm thankful for this ministry. And of course, what this church represents, the legacy that we have.

The founder, David Wilkerson, and of course, to follow up, Pastor Carter, who kept it going just as strong, and now Pastor Tim. So thankful for this house. So we're gonna be speaking under the subject of breaking the grip of addiction. Jesus did not die to make bondage manageable. He died to make freedom possible. Amen? So today, I'm very clear what my assignment is, and it's to bring us to a place of prayer. You know, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 21 that his house would be a house of prayer. And I believe he said that for many reasons, but one of the reasons I believe he said that was because he understood that what had to happen in our lives in one way or another was going to need God, and that we would not be able to do it on our own. That's why he didn't say his house would be a house of wisdom, or his house would be a house of strategies, or his house would be a house of songs. All those things are good, and God does use those things, and God blesses those things. But he let us know that his house had to be a place where we would have to call upon him and depend on him to do something supernatural in our lives. That's why we believe in prayer, this church and at Brooklyn Teen Challenge, because we know that what God has called us to do,

we cannot do on our own. And what God wants to do in our lives tonight is going to take a move of God, especially if you're in this place or you're online, and you're bound by addiction, you're struggling with addiction, you're going to need a move of God. Maybe not just to get sober, but I'm not talking about white-knuckle sobriety, I'm talking about freedom, and freedom only comes from the Lord. I also wanna let you know that I'm not a doctor or a scientist. In fact, some of the things that I might say, some people may disagree with it, but I'm here to tell you today that the book that I believe in and the book that I trust in is this book right here. So if your theories go against this word, I'm gonna stick to this word every time. Can I get an amen? Hallelujah. I also wanna be clear to let you know that shame is not the goal here tonight. I don't care how much you've struggled, how long you've struggled, what you've done, what you've done to yourself, what you've done to other people, that shame is not the goal. That every time that you feel shame or sense shame,

you can look at the cross and feel the acceptance of God a thousand times more. Because my Bible says that God so loved the world that he sent his only son. Didn't say that he only loved the good ones or the clean ones, he said he loved the world. So I'm here to tell you that if you're sitting in this place today under the sound of my voice or you're online, that God loves you deeply and dearly and he has something better for you than you could ever imagine. So shame is not the goal. I'm gonna be reading out of Mark chapter five, but first I'm gonna read a couple verses out of Luke. You do not have to go there. See, in Luke chapter four, Jesus enters his hometown, Nazareth. As he begins his earthly ministry, he makes a declaration stating his mission, first prophesied out of the book of Isaiah 61, which he passed on to the church. And I wanna read that. In Luke chapter four, verse 18 and 19, it says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives. And I wanna stop right there.

That word captives means in its original translation is those that have been carried away or taken away. And I'm here to tell you today that part of the promise of God, the part of the reason why Jesus was sent down to die on a bloody cross was that we could be free from captivity, that we could be free from bondages, that we could free from the control of the devil or his plans and his purposes to steal, kill, and destroy. First John chapter three, verse eight, says that the purpose of Jesus was to destroy the works of the devil. And how many people believe that addictions and strongholds are the work of the devil? So Jesus gives us his mission statement in Luke chapter four, which he repeated from Isaiah 61, that is the mission of the church, it's the mission of Jesus Christ, and it's the mission tonight, that the Lord is going to set the captives free because of his great love for humanity. I'd like to pray, if we can, before I get rolling here. Father, we come before you in the precious name of Jesus, and we thank you for this night that you've allotted in our lives, Lord, that many of us come from different places and different demographics, different parts of the world, but for tonight, we're all in the same place. And I ask that you would help me in my weakness, Lord,

in my frailty, to declare your truths and principles with authority, with your authority. Lord, I pray that every heart would be prepared for your word as soil is prepared for seed. And Lord, I pray that you would take your strong right hand up against any distraction in this place. And Lord, what you have set forth to accomplish tonight will be accomplished, amen. Breaking the grip of addiction. According to SAMHSA, which is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which is a national office in America, it says that almost 50 million people struggle from addiction. in America. It also says that about just under 30 million people in the United States of America struggle with alcohol. And I would like to believe and think that none of the people that are in the church are part of that, but I'd be fooling myself and I'd be lying to you that this drugs and alcohol has also slipped in to the church. There are many people that call themselves Christians that love God and that God loves and that call Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior still struggle with substance abuse and alcohol. Some people, because they listen to culture and so been doxinated by culture that they don't even understand or may even believe that they have a problem

because the world says that certain things are okay. That's what we're dealing with right now. That's what we're dealing with right now as we know that marijuana has been legalized and you can't walk anywhere in New York City and not get the wonderful whiff of marijuana. In fact, well, I'm not gonna go there. But because our culture and our world is changing, sometimes our posture of our heart, our perception of things kind of changes with it a little bit. We start to think that things are acceptable because our culture says they are acceptable. But I'm here to tell you today that they're not. Overdose deaths, which are still around 80,000 people a year in America, which is a lot. It's actually down from about 110,000. I'm thankful for that. Over the last couple years is partially because we've started to crack down on fentanyl, but also Narcan and different things that help people not to die from overdosing have been created. It doesn't mean that just as many people aren't overdosing it means or bound by addiction. It just means that they're not all dying. And I had in my life, I've had to Narcan someone who was overdosed multiple times and they would have died possibly if I was not there or somebody wasn't there to help them. So just because overdose deaths have gone down doesn't mean that the drug problem is going away.

Doesn't mean the alcohol problem is going away. Doesn't mean the pornography problem is going away. Doesn't mean all of the things that hold people bound are going away. In fact, they seem to be getting worse. If we look at those numbers, it says about 11 to 21% of people struggle with alcohol. That's up to one in five people. One in six are addicted to drugs. That means when you walk out there and you see thousands and thousands of people in the street, statistics would say that one out of every six of them are struggling with some kind of substance. With the acceleration of pharmaceuticals and over-prescribing, there are a lot of people that are struggling with not just illicit street drugs but with pharmaceuticals. And sometimes that seems to be a little bit more acceptable because a doctor gives it to you. But I know a lot of people that are bound because doctors have given them things. In fact, many of the people in the program, many of them would say that they first were prescribed something, abused it, and then ended up addicted to illicit drugs. And so there's still a drug problem in America. There's still a drug problem. And probably every one of you can think about a family member or a friend or a coworker or know somebody that's struggling with addiction.

Maybe you're sitting here today and you're struggling yourself. Maybe you've been bound. Maybe people know about it. Maybe somebody brought you here. Maybe nobody knows about it. Either way, tonight has been designed for you. I remember 18 years ago answering an altar call for myself and starting the process of deliverance, starting the process of being healed of drug addiction. I'm going to read out of Mark chapter five here. And I want to be clear before I read this portion of scripture. This portion of scripture is about a man who's possessed by demons. And I don't want you to think that by this, I'm saying that every person that struggles with addiction. that has an addiction problem has a demon. I don't believe that kind of theology, but I do believe that addiction and strongholds are demonic. I believe it is an attack of the devil to steal, kill, and destroy people, and I do believe that that although someone may not be oppressed or possessed by demons does not mean that that the repercussions that happen in in someone's life from addiction often mimics somebody that's under the control of the devil. I'd like to explain that here. Mark chapter 5 verse 1, Then they came to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gadareans. And when he had come out of the boat, immediately there he met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and chains had been pulled apart by him, and shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the

tombs, crying out and cutting himself with the stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment me. And for he said to him, Come out of the man, unclean spirit. And then he asked him, What's your name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. Also, he begged him earnestly that he would not send them out of the country. I understand this portion of Scripture doesn't speak about addictions, or bad habits, or how this man became possessed by demons, or controlled by the devil. But I also believe it's a good example of the potential of where strongholds and addictions can take someone. When I look at this portion of Scripture, I can relate some of my life, and where I was, where I was bound. It says here in verse 2 that he was living amongst the tombs. He was living in isolation amongst dead things. He lived amongst the dead. He lived amongst where dreams were dead. He lived amongst where relationships were dead. He relived amongst where finances were dead, and marriages were dead, and his health was dead. In fact, that word tomb in the original language, it means memorials or memory. I believe that this person was living amongst the tombs, and he was living in possibly old memories, old traumas, old things that had happened to him. Old, old, old, old issues in his thinking that led him to a place of isolation, and a place of where he didn't even feel worthy of living amongst the people. And I remember myself being in addiction, strung out. I remember I would disappear for six months at a time. My family would not know where I was, and I would be living amongst the dead people. In fact, I had these people that I used to go to at 3 o'clock in the morning. If nobody would answer the phone, I knew that I could show up at their house, and they were addicted to methamphetamines, and if you know anything about this particular drug, it keeps you up for days. And I knew that if I showed up at 3 o'clock in the morning, they would have all the lights on, and they would be outside under a hood fixing a car. But when you would look at them, they literally looked like dead people. There was darkness in their eyes. There was grayness on their skin, and

they looked like a skeleton. And I used to call them, say, we're gonna go to the dead people's house. And so when I read this portion of Scripture some time ago, I said, man, I felt like I was living amongst the tombs. It also goes on in verse 3 that said that chains could not even bind him. And what that means is natural means of logic, or, or, or natural means of containing, or, or, or holding back could not contain this man. It also talks about, in verse 5, it says, day and night this man would cut himself and hurt himself. And I remember being in addiction, and all the time I thought that, that, that I wasn't hurting anybody, or, or that I was, I was doing okay, but really I was just hurting myself. And I wasn't physically cutting myself with a rock, or with, with a knife, but I was cutting myself with needles in my arms day and night. Sometimes I remember one night my mother had picked me up after I had disappeared for a while, and she came and found me. And I remember, I remember she would tell me after I had come to, after I got rest for a week, she said, you were hallucinating, and your arms were bleeding. There were needle marks up and down your arm. So when I read this about this demoniac, I said, that was me. I was under control of the devil. I was living in this world amongst dead things and I was living in this world of self-harm and hurting myself. See, it's physical self-harm of the body, the brain, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, sleepless nights, complete exhaustion, and attempts to quench an unquenchable thirst for more that promises relief but only destroys. See, addiction offers an escape from pain but then becomes the very prison that produces more pain. I had relational harm.

Nobody would, family was away from me, broken relationships, broken jobs, unemployable, had spiritual harm. Addiction pulls a person away from God. It pulls them away from truth, away from worship, away from purpose, away from my identity, and it caused me to live beneath the place that God had called me. See, addiction makes a person forget who they are, whose they are, and what they were created for. It was financial harm, lost everything. It was a thief, a liar, and a cheat. Mental harm, addiction distorts your judgment and it teaches the mind to justify what is hurting the body, the family, and your future. Addiction often increases shame and guilt and depression, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness. A person uses to escape pain, but the addiction usually makes the pain worse. Addiction doesn't just change the person, it changes what the person believes is even normal. And it was self-harm, future self-harm. See, addiction steals time, it steals you from your calling, your potential, your dreams, and your destiny. It makes a person sacrifice tomorrow for temporary relief today. Addiction is when a person keeps borrowing from tomorrow to survive today. Addiction is self-harm.

Addiction is self-harm because it causes a person to wound their own body, sabotage their own future, isolate their own soul, and destroy what they actually long to protect. Addictions and strongholds. A stronghold is a fortified place. It is a castle, fortress, or defended position built to protect people from attack. In simple terms, it's something strong that is hard to break into or tear down. But spiritually, a stronghold is something that has gained strong influence or control in a person's mind, heart, or life. It could be from a pattern of wrong thinking, a lie believed over time, a sinful habit. This could happen from fear, bitterness, pride, addiction, shame, or unbelief. Anything that resists the truth of God's word can lead someone into bondage. Where Paul speaks of strongholds in Corinthians chapter 10, being pulled down through God's power, the idea is that these are inner fortresses of thought and rebellion set up against the knowledge of God. And I wanted to talk to you about what a stronghold is because it's generally a lie believed over time, and it's generally the entryway of where addiction will continue to be able to live. One of the things that I think is a lie, and this is nothing against somebody that may have,

or is in AA or NA or anything of that sort, anything that keeps someone alive is good for me, keeps them alive long enough to hear the gospel. But I remember sitting in those rooms and I was told to say, my name is this, and I'm an addict. That contradicts what my Bible says. I remember being told relapse is a part of addiction, and it can be, and there's no shame if it is, but it doesn't have to be a part of addiction. Another lie that may be believed over time another lie that may be believed is that my parents were addicts and my whole family is addicts, and this is just what we do, and this is just the way it's going to be because daddy died a drunk and I'm gonna die a drunk. That is a lie from the pit of hell. So, what is the entryway of many addictions and strongholds? It's simple and it's complex. It generally enters through temptation and lies. Now, I understand trauma. I understand isolated trauma. Someone gets into a car accident and they have PTSD or some of something from trauma. I also understand complex trauma that people get abused. In fact, there's probably people, I know that there's probably people in this room right now that have experienced every kind of abuse in your life. As Evan said, many times we get to a place where we don't use to get high or to have fun. We use just not to feel.

And I get that. And I understand that. And sometimes the temptation to use is not the temptation to get high or to get drunk, but it's the temptation to do something or to numb something that only God can do himself. In James chapter 1, 14 and 15, it says, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed. Then when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings death. I've heard it said like this before. First, there's desire to fulfill a need. Then there's taste. Then there's repeat until you lose control. I want you to take you back to the text in Mark chapter 5 because it's interesting in verse 7. It says that he cried out with a loud voice, what have to do with you, Jesus, the son of the most high God? I employ you by God not to torment me. I always found this interesting because I understand that this man was under the control of the devil, but it was this man speaking. And what I see here is a man coming before and falling at the knees of the Lord and literally begging him not to torment him. And it reminded me of being a young man when I first started dabbling at 15 years old with alcohol and drugs was the fact that I thought that God or life was withholding something from me. I thought that I was missing a good time. I thought that this is what was normal to do. And I remember, I remember being, going through the say no to drugs things and all those campaigns and those they meant well and those things are good, but I haven't met a person that decided not to do drugs because Nancy Reagan said say no to drugs personally. Maybe you know someone that has.

But I thought that God was withholding something from me. I thought that he wanted to torment my life or take something away from me or take a good time from me. I found out later that that wasn't the case. That God wanted to bless me and God wanted to give me a life abundantly and God wanted to give me hope and a future and he wanted to give me the desires of my heart to have a family and to be productive and to have a meaningful life. And yet he lies to us, especially young people at a young age, thinking that God is trying to withhold something good from you and I'm here to tell you today that God is not trying to withhold anything good from you. In fact, his desire for you is to be good to you. His desire to you is to bless you far more than you could ever think or imagine. It doesn't mean that life won't be hard and it doesn't mean that you won't go through struggles and then there won't be seasons of heartache. That's life, but you will have a hope. You will have an anchor in Jesus Christ that no matter what you go through, you will know that he is with you and that he will carry you. And of course, because of time, I'm going to cut this a little short, but the Bible doesn't say addiction right out. It doesn't talk about that. It does touch on alcohol a little bit, but it does talk a lot about being overcome by the things of the flesh. It does talk about being overcome by sinful desires and because of time, I'm not going to go there, but if you want my notes, I can give you. I have a bunch of scriptures here and we can be here all night if you want to, but you're just going to have to trust me that the Bible talks about, many times, about being held bondage and held captive through our lustful desires. One of them is this, in 2 Peter 2.19, it says, While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. Romans 6.16 says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness. And this speaks of becoming a slave to which you obey. And if you've ever been addicted to anything, you know that it calls you to obey. I love what Edward Welch says in a book that we use as part of our curriculum, A Banquet in the Grave. And it says, Many feel trapped and out of control. They feel like worshippers at the altar of something dangerously devoted to something that's destroying them. They feel desperate, hungry, and thirsty for relief. They feel as though they cannot let go, clinging to the very behavior that offers fewer and fewer pleasures while producing greater and greater pain. That is why true freedom cannot simply come from better ideas, stronger willpower, or a new set of principles. True liberation comes when we come to know Jesus Christ, the one who has the power not only to forgive, but to set free. The same author says this, Addiction is a cruel bondage of body, mind, and soul in which a person keeps returning to the very thing that's destroying them. I want to tell you today, folks, that deliverance doesn't come from a group of steps, a program, a ministry. It comes from knowing Jesus Christ. He is the only one to set us free. When I speak of addiction, I know that I'm speaking mostly of drugs and alcohol, but we don't want to forget anger. We don't want to forget social media. We don't want to forget jealousy or gossip or sleep or nicotine or pain or TV or exercise or gambling or soda or work or sports or sugar or people or sex or caffeine, shoplifting, lie, chocolate, risk, risk-taking, success, winning, or pornography. When our list goes this way, all of us can see that we all have the potential of having things to hold us in bondage. I said earlier, people don't always use or fall into sin because they want to get high or because they want to have a good time. Sometimes they do it to forget, and sometimes they do it to cure self-conscious issues or timidity or avoid pain or fill holes in themselves or manage emotions or fit in with others or prove to yourself that you can do what you want or to fight loneliness. And I understand that all of those, that list that I gave you, there are many reasons why we struggle with them. There are many reasons why those things become life-controlling, but I'm here to tell you today that tonight you can be delivered of whatever your issue might be, however great or however small. And I love how Evan said that addiction doesn't always come all at once. You see, I look at it this way. There's deliverance, there's discipleship, and then there's discipline. There's a moment in time like tonight that you may be delivered by God. God may speak to your heart or God may even give you the desire to quit. Even that is a gift from God, to even have the desire to say, I want to answer a prayer call because I want to get right.

That is a gift from God. And then there's discipleship where you learn about the Lord and you learn how to walk in your freedom. But here's the other thing, is it's also not about learning something new. It's about unlearning everything that you've learned over the years. Unlearning the trauma, unlearning self-worth, and unlearning the lies that you have in your identity. And so there's learning and there's unlearning. And then, of course, there's discipline. It's where you have to put the hard work in. But like this man in this portion of Scripture, he had to have a spiritual encounter. And I'll tell you today, tonight, if you want true freedom, you must have a spiritual encounter. I love what our founder, David Wilkerson, would say. He said this, we cannot claim a magical cure for addiction. The devil which hides in the needle and the pills and the powder is so deadly strong that any such claim would be foolish. All we can say is that we have found a power that captures a person more strongly. Strongly than narcotics, but he captures only to liberate It says in verse 6 that he ran and he worshipped the Lord he had a spiritual encounter I'm here to tell you to tell you today that God has designed this service just for you to have a spiritual encounter with the Lord No matter what you've done or how you see yourself God loves you deeply Tonight he will deliver you Number two, you will need to practice extreme humility Confession The devil wants you to feel alone. He wants you to hide your sin He wants you to hide in the in the shadows of what's really going on But if you want to be set free tonight, you're going to have to practice extreme humility And then you're going to have to learn accountability We were never created to do this alone. That's why we are the body of Christ. We are here for each other and There are many ways to have accountability in your life for me. It was the program 2008 I went through teen challenge and the accountability was good for me In fact, I think if you're struggling today and you're in this place, it would be good for you, too

So much so that we have a table out there with brochures and people just you can talk to after the service number three You must discover purpose See addiction is all-consuming for some the mental obsession is exactly that obsession But it leaves a vacuum that if it's not filled with purpose, it will most likely get filled again. I Love what Mark Twain says the two most important days of your life for the day that you are born The day that you find out why You have to have purpose if we look at the text in verse 18 As I close maybe the worship team could come Is that this man gets set free and Jesus delivers him and he decides that he wants to go follow Jesus and Jesus tells him no This is the only time in Scripture that I that I that I know where someone went after Jesus And said I want to follow you and I want to go with you. It seems like what everybody was doing, right? Seems like a great idea I'm gonna get delivered from all these demons Delivered from the work of the devil in my life and then I'm gonna go follow Jesus and I'm gonna go right into the ministry with But Jesus tells him something different He tells him to go back home And go talk to and show his family what God has done And bring glory to God And what I see in that is purpose He got an instruction from Jesus on what he was to do with his life And what God has called each one of you to do with your life may be different what he's called What me what to do? May be different from what he's called your neighbor to do But I'm here to tell you today that God has a purpose for each one of you And One of the beautiful things about God calling you and being called by God isn't just called the ministry You're called into salvation. You're called into a family is

That he doesn't call anybody and then just leave them there. He calls you and he gives you a Responsibility to bring glory to his name And what that looks like for you is different So you're gonna have to have a spiritual encounter and you can do that tonight You're gonna have to practice extreme humility and you can start that tonight You're going to have to discover purpose and what God has for you and you can start that tonight But the last thing I want to say before I Ask pastor Tim to come up is that you you're gonna have to learn how to guard your heart Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23 says keep your heart with all diligence For out of it spring the issues of life Some of us didn't start or Get caught up in any kind of addiction or stronghold because we wanted to do that Often it's the issues of life and of our heart Trauma unforgiveness Resentment That lead us to a place of where we found ourselves overtaken by a sin And just because God delivers you tonight and just because you start to practice extreme humility and you discover your purpose Is you're gonna have to continue to guard your heart More now than ever even after 18 years sober and clean I don't think about drugs at this point in my life I have no desire for any of that has been so good to me and my family, and done so much for us, I would be a fool to even contemplate any of that. But see, the devil won't come at you once you've been delivered, just to get high or drink. He'll come at a different way. He'll cause you to be unforgiving

to that person that hurt you. You may be too overprotective of yourself to even find help or get maybe some kind of counsel over some kind of abuse or trauma that happened to you. And if you don't allow the Lord to minister to your heart, guard your heart, you can find yourself in the same place you were when you first started. And unfortunately, I see that a lot today. So I pray today that you not only today, if you're looking to be delivered, find it here in this place on this night. But I pray that you also learn to walk in it and keep it for every day of your life because you guard your heart.